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Adjunct Blues

My dinged-up Honda sputtersto the next school, next class –Freshman Comp 101, where students in sweatsyawn away my 8 a.m. lecture and the new recruit quarterbackslouches at his seat, texts while his girlfriend slidesher heels up his legs, tap, tap, tapping her pencil all class.

My dinged-up Honda sputtersto the next school, next office,where the copier beeps and jams and I imagineyanking out its wired guts, spilling coffee on its circuits,clapping as it smokes and steams.

My dinged-up Honda sputtersto the next school, next community clinicfor a free flu shot and medicine to easemy chronic cough. The secretary eyes my ironedthrift store suit and tie, says, You sureyou need this service?

My dinged-up Honda sputtersto the next school, next class,where I ghost through hallways, a blurto full-time faculty. This time I leaveall lights on after 10 p.m., go home to red-inkmy last stack of exams.

Brian Fanelli’s poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in a number of magazines and journals, most recently Oklahoma Review, Spillway, Boston Literary Magazine, Portland Review, and Third Wednesday. Fanelli is the author of one chapbook, Front Man (Big Table Publishing), and the full-length collection All That Remains, forthcoming soon from Unbound Content. Prior to working as a full-time English instructor at Lackawanna College, Fanelli worked a number of jobs, including country clerk, factory worker, and adjunct instructor. He has an MFA from Wilkes University and is currently a PhD student at SUNY Binghamton.